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Football Dynamo: Modern Russia and the People's Game
By Marc Bennetts. 2008
In 1991, the collapse of the USSR seemed to signal the death of the Russian football industry, as the money,…
the players and the fans left. But now the oligarchs who profited from the post-Soviet turmoil are supporting the nation's football clubs and their dreams of glory, resulting in unprecedented success. Along this journey into the heart of Russian football, Marc Bennetts meets the managers, oligarchs, players, pundits and fans that define the Russian Premier league, now the fastest-growing and most intriguing football league in the world. From Andrei Arshavin and the national team's adventures at Euro 2008 to the symbolism of a club from war-torn Chechnya lifting the Russian FA Cup, Football Dynamo uncovers shocking revelations about corruption, hooliganism and racism, but also the true beauty of the game and the country.Famous Trials: Unwanted Spouses (Penguin Specials)
By Alex McBride. 2012
From the legendary Famous Trials series of real-life courtroom dramas, two classic murder trials abridged and refreshed as Penguin Specials…
for modern readers, selected and introduced by Alex McBride, author of Defending the GuiltyA respectable solicitor in the town of Hay-on-Wye, harried by his troubled wife, slowly and carefully poisons her to death. Pleased with the results, he sees an opportunity for another quick-fix solution and turns his murderous attentions to his business rival... Trapped in a marriage of convenience to an aging man almost thirty years her senior, thirty-eight year-old Alma falls in love with seventeen year-old George, when he answers her advertisement for a 'willing lad' to do the housework. It's the perfect set up - a well-disposed husband and a passionate lover - until George destroys it all by trying to get the husband out of the way...These two classic cases of spousal murder - one chillingly domestic, the other bizarre and touching - took place in 1922 and 1935. In these brilliant reconstructions, they continue to confound our expectations of how murderers are meant to proceed.The legendary Famous Trials series set the benchmark for historical crime writing with its accounts of the most notorious and intriguing criminal trials of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Expertly reconstructed from court transcripts, these often sensational narratives have gripped generations of readers since they first appeared in 1941. In this digital edition, two of the very best Famous Trials have been selected, introduced and further abridged by criminal barrister and author Alex McBride to provide modern readers with the most compelling versions yet of these court-room classics.Alex McBride is a criminal barrister. His book Defending the Guilty: Truth and Lies in the Criminal Courtroom was shortlisted for the 2010 Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction and is available in Penguin. He has written for the Guardian, Independent, Prospect and New Statesman, and has contributed to various BBC programmes, including From Our Own Correspondent.'Expert, authoritative, hilarious - an insider's fearless account of life at the criminal bar'Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year on Defending the GuiltyFamous Trials: Thrill-Killers (Penguin Specials)
By Alex McBride. 2012
From the legendary Famous Trials series of real-life courtroom dramas, two classic murder trials abridged and refreshed as Penguin Specials…
for modern readers, selected and introduced by Alex McBride, author of Defending the GuiltyThomas Cream, erstwhile Sunday school teacher and serial poisoner, has an unsettling air and wonky eye. He also happens to be a doctor, which provides him with ample means and an ideal cover for his murderous activities. His victims are vulnerable young women, whose trust he gains with drinks and trips to the music hall, before offering them pills or swigs from a medicine bottle. A few hours later, they are dying in agony.The Honourable Thomas Ley, meanwhile, has an even better disguise: he's the former Justice Minister for New South Wales and a successful businessman, albeit with a shady past. Rumours abound when a political opponent disappears without trace and a business partner winds up at the bottom of a cliff.Neither killer can help themselves - and this, in the end, leads to their downfall - and both defy our comprehension. Brilliantly reconstructed here, their trials, in 1892 and 1947, reveal a deeply sinister conundrum: by the time you've discovered the secrets in their heart, it's inevitably much too late.The legendary Famous Trials series set the benchmark for historical crime writing with its accounts of the most notorious and intriguing criminal trials of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Expertly reconstructed from court transcripts, these often sensational narratives have gripped generations of readers since they first appeared in 1941. In this digital edition, two of the very best Famous Trials have been selected, introduced and further abridged by criminal barrister and author Alex McBride to provide modern readers with the most compelling versions yet of these court-room classics.Alex McBride is a criminal barrister. His book Defending the Guilty: Truth and Lies in the Criminal Courtroom was shortlisted for the 2010 Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction and is available in Penguin. He has written for the Guardian, Independent, Prospect and New Statesman, and has contributed to various BBC programmes, including From Our Own Correspondent.'Expert, authoritative, hilarious - an insider's fearless account of life at the criminal bar'Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year on Defending the GuiltyFamous Trials: Lucky Escapes (Penguin Specials)
By Alex McBride. 2012
From the legendary Famous Trials series of real-life courtroom dramas, two classic murder trials abridged and refreshed as Penguin Specials…
for modern readers, selected and introduced by Alex McBride, author of Defending the GuiltyNineteen year-old Madeleine Smith may have been charged in 1857 with poisoning her lover, Emile L'Angelier, but her real sin was having sex - a lot of sex - out of wedlock. Her mistake was to write him frank and passionate letters, described by the trial judge as 'without any sense of decency', which L'Angelier threatened to send to her father when she cooled on the idea of marriage, having secretly engaged herself to someone else.Some fifty years later, the trial of Robert Wood, a respectable, hard-working illustrator by day, who frolicked with prostitutes by night, including the unfortunate Emily Dimmock, also hinged on a dangerous correspondence. Dimmock's murderer had evidently ransacked her rooms for a postcard written by Wood. Was there something he was desperate to hide? The author of his trial is certain he was guilty.But both escaped conviction - in Wood's case, thanks to the defence of the best defence barrister in the land. In Madeleine Smith's, the three judges ruled two-to-one to exclude from evidence L'Angelier's pocket book, which recorded her meetings with him on the day of the murder. These two salacious and controversial trials demonstrate how the dramatic difference between 'guilty' and 'not guilty' can sometimes be decided by a mere scrap of paper.The legendary Famous Trials series set the benchmark for historical crime writing with its accounts of the most notorious and intriguing criminal trials of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Expertly reconstructed from court transcripts, these often sensational narratives have gripped generations of readers since they first appeared in 1941. In this digital edition, two of the very best Famous Trials have been selected, introduced and further abridged by criminal barrister and author Alex McBride to provide modern readers with the most compelling versions yet of these court-room classics.Alex McBride is a criminal barrister. His book Defending the Guilty: Truth and Lies in the Criminal Courtroom was shortlisted for the 2010 Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction and is available in Penguin. He has written for the Guardian, Independent, Prospect and New Statesman, and has contributed to various BBC programmes, including From Our Own Correspondent.'Expert, authoritative, hilarious - an insider's fearless account of life at the criminal bar' Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year on Defending the GuiltyYou May Never See Us Again: The Barclay Dynasty: A Story of Survival, Secrecy and Succession
By Jane Martinson. 2023
'A tour de force' - Guardian'Forensic ... Strong on financial detail' - Financial TimesA Financial Times Book of the Year…
2023The untold story of post-war Britain. Told through the lives of the two men who helped shape it: Sir David Barclay and Sir Frederick Barclay.You May Never See Us Again is the only definitive story of David and Frederick Barclay - commonly known as the Barclay brothers. Born poor, these enigmatic twins built one of the biggest fortunes in Britain together from scratch and spent six decades at the epicentre of British business, media and politics. Their empire, said to be worth £7bn at its height, included Littlewoods, the Ritz Hotel, The Daily Telegraph and the channel island of Brecqhou. They were major advocates for Brexit and well-connected with influential politicians including Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.And yet despite their fortune and influence, their fiercely guarded desire for privacy has meant that their story remained largely unknown - until a very public family dispute pitched Barclay against Barclay in the High Court.Journalist Jane Martinson unravels the fascinating story of these once inseparable billionaire brothers. Through their lives she offers compelling insights into post-war Britain, from the conditions that enabled their way of doing business to thrive through to the tightly enmeshed webs of influence between capitalism, politics and the media that shape Britain today.Essex Boy: Last Man Standing
By Bernard O'Mahoney, Steven Ellis. 2009
Two films and numerous books have attempted to tell the shocking story of two of Britain's most ruthless gangs. For…
20 years, the Essex Boys firm and their successors, the New Generation, controlled a lucrative drugs empire in Essex and throughout the south east of England by using intimidation, gratuitous violence and murder. Rampaging through the streets and clubland, they destroyed anything and anybody that dared to get in their way. Eventually torn apart by greed and paranoia, the gang members became victims of their own vile trade and hate-filled actions. Pat Tate, Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe were all blasted repeatedly with a shotgun as they sat in their Range Rover down a remote farm track. Dean Boshell was lured to allotments, then beaten and shot execution-style three times through the head. Others, such as Darren Nicholls and Damon Alvin, turned Super Grass and disappeared into the witness protection scheme never to be seen again, while three other men are in prison serving life sentences. Steve `Nipper` Ellis is the last man standing, the only member to have survived the bloody reign of both gangs. In Essex Boy, he tells his shocking story for the first time, and reveals just how close he came to being both murderer and murder victim.El Infierno: My time inside Ecuador’s toughest prisons
By Pieter Tritton. 2017
“Gato’s head snapped back… We could make out the shots of several 9mms, a couple of 38s and one or…
two 45s. I hurled myself through the doorway and into the room. I didn’t look back.”Caught in an Ecuador hotel room with 8kg of cocaine, Pieter Tritton was no mule or dupe. He had planned and organised everything. The consequence: a 12-year sentence inside one of the world’s deadliest prison systems, where gun fights, executions and riots are a part of everyday life. As a Brit banged up abroad, Pieter had to learn how to survive – and fast – because one wrong move would mean death.This is the insider account of what it’s like to live in a place worse than hell and come out a changed man on the other side.Female Terror
By Ann Magma. 2002
'IT WAS NOT MURDER. WE ARE NOT MURDERERS. IT WAS THE EXECUTION OF AN ORDER, SATAN ORDERED US AND WE…
HAD TO COMPLY. IT WAS NOT SOMETHING BAD. IT SIMPLY HAD TO BE. WE WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT THE VICTIM SUFFERED WELL. MY KNIFE STARTED TO GLOW AND I HEARD THE COMMAND TO STAB HIM.' - 'Satanic' Murderess, Manuela RudaWomen are becoming as active as men in shocking and heinous crimes across the globe, from rape and murder to extortion and street crime, as well as the occasional satanic slaying. Statistics show that female crime and female violence is on the rise, particularly in America, where violent offences committed by women have risen by over 100 percent in the past two years.Women are now a major force in both organised crime and terrorism. In the last ten years they have also come to the fore as gun-toting leaders of Los Angeles street gangs, whose members are every bit as ruthless and aggressive as their male counterparts. They are running organised crime syndicates and shooting down their enemies.From Ulrike Meinhof to Rose West, from suicide bombers to mafia godmothers. Ann Magma looks at the rise and rise of the dangerous female.Essex Boys: A Terrifying Expose Of The British Drugs Scene
By Bernard O'Mahoney. 2000
ESSEX BOYS is the brand new edition of the shocking bestseller known as SO THIS IS ECSTASY?. It is the…
true story of the rise of one of the most violent and successful criminal gangs of the 90's whose reign of terror was finally terminated when the three leaders were brutally murdered in their Range Rover one winter's evening. On their way they had built the drug-dealing organisation that which supplied the pill that killed Leah Betts. They were responsible for a wave of intimidation, beatings and murder. Until, it seems, they took one step too far. Now there is compelling evidence that the men convicted of shooting the dead men are innocent. Which means the real murderers are still at large. Bernard O'Mahoney was a key member of what has been one of the most feared gangs of the decade. His inside account of their cold-blooded violence reveals that facts can be more terryfing than fiction.The Dublin Railway Murder: The sensational true story of a Victorian murder mystery
By Thomas Morris. 2021
A thrilling and perplexing investigation of a true Victorian crime at Dublin railway station.Dublin, November 1856: George Little, the chief…
cashier of the Broadstone railway terminus, is found dead, lying in a pool of blood beneath his desk.He has been savagely beaten, his head almost severed; there is no sign of a murder weapon, and the office door is locked, apparently from the inside. Thousands of pounds in gold and silver are left untouched at the scene of the crime.Augustus Guy, Ireland's most experienced detective, teams up with Dublin's leading lawyer to investigate the murder. But the mystery defies all explanation, and two celebrated sleuths sent by Scotland Yard soon return to London, baffled.Five suspects are arrested then released, with every step of the salacious case followed by the press, clamouring for answers. But then a local woman comes forward, claiming to know the murderer...'The Dublin Railway Murder is a true-crime masterclass' Philip Gray, author of Two Storm WoodDruglord: Guns, Powder and Pay-Offs
By Graham Johnson. 2006
When ruthless drug baron John Haase was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment for heroin-trafficking in 1995, it was a major…
victory for Customs and the police. But in a shock move, after Haase and his partner Paul Bennett had served only 11 months, then Home Secretary Michael Howard signed a Royal Pardon for their release. Howard defended his decision by revealing that Haase and Bennett had become invaluable informants. But Haase had in fact duped the authorities, and far from being forced into hiding as a supergrass, he gained new kudos among the criminal underworld for beating the system so audaciously. Graham Johnson interviewed Haase at Whitemoor prison and has obtained a copy of his sworn affidavit revealing the truth behind the Royal Pardon scandal. Allegations of huge bribes, mass fabrication of evidence and dark powers at the heart of the justice system make this an explosive exposé of Britain's number-one drug kingpin.Dangerous Love: A Gripping Memoir of Romance and Murder
By Kate Lock. 2004
When Kate Lock first met Tim Franklin she was a naive undergraduate, and he was a charismatic mature student. One…
night in the pub he casually revealed that he was a 'lifer'. A domestic dispute had taken a tragic turn, an accidental death, he said. It was the start of an explosive relationship which began in passionate union and ended in emotional cruelty. But it was only when Kate tried to leave him that she discovered how potentially dangerous he really was. And only when he died, leaving her a legacy of murder to investigate, did she understand the Machiavellian deception of the man and the pathological pattern of his love. Dangerous Love is a stunning memoir of a true romance that became a living nightmare, and ended with the discovery of a Christie-style murder that rocked the North.Dance for your Daddy: The True Story of a Brutal East End Childhood
By Katherine Shellduck. 2007
'This morning I found this bag. I had been looking for sweets. I put my hand in the bag and…
felt a sticky liquid on my fingers, then I looked at it. A red smear. Then I looked in the bag: bloody knives and clothes. It didn't feel good. What did it mean? I don't know. There are no answers; I daren't ask the questions'Growing up in poverty in London's East End, Kathy was eight years old when her father forced her mother into prostitution. When their mother fled, leaving Kathy and her sisters behind, the girls stuck fiercely together while being passed from children's homes to boarding schools. Then, on a rare trip home, Kathy looked out the window to see a man firing four shots into a Rolls-Royce. It took several seconds for her to realise the victim was her mother's lover, and the gunman was her father.Kathy began her haunting memoir when, as an adult, she travelled back to London, to find out who her gangster father really was. A compelling memoir of an extraordinary childhood, Dance for your Daddy is a true story of the effects on one family of poverty and affluence, violence and love.The Devil: Britain's Most Feared Underworld Taxman
By Graham Johnson. 2007
Drug dealers beware. The Devil is coming to get you. Gangster Stephen French invented the perfect crime: robbing drug barons…
of their huge fortunes. In SAS-style swoops, French raided their fortified mansions and tortured them with horrifying violence until they paid up. Through 'taxing' the richest and most powerful crimelords in the UK, he netted over £20 million.French was no ordinary criminal. He was a world-champion fighter, he studied psychology at university to master mind-control techniques, and he used the teachings of Machiavelli and samurai warriors to outwit his enemies. The Devil also reveals French's complex relationship with Curtis Warren, the wealthiest criminal in British history. The two were childhood pals, then partners and finally bitter enemies.Now a legitimate businessman, French built up a multimillion-pound empire. Having eventually turned his back on his former life, he is now seeking to set the record straight.Deep Cover: How I took down Britain’s most dangerous gangsters
By Shay Doyle, Scott Hesketh. 2022
Shortlisted for the Book of the Year and Audiobook of the Year at the 2023 True Crime AwardsStreet kid turned…
undercover cop. 'This time he wasn't getting up. Neither were the two young women he'd just murdered. The two unarmed young police officers he cut down in a hail of 32 bullets and the fragments of a grenade, ending their promising lives so savagely, so senselessly. I felt empty. Cold. How had it come to this?'Shay Doyle grew up on a tough Manchester council estate where drugs and gangs were rife. A life of crime would have been an easy path to take. So it went against everything that was expected of him when he joined the police.It wasn't long before Shay's prodigious talent caught the attention of the top and he was called upon to join the secret Level 1 undercover unit, Omega. He was given a new identity and his DNA and fingerprints were removed from the national database.In a distinguished covert career spanning 17 years, Shay led covert operations tackling high-profile murder cases and came face to face with some of Britain's most dangerous gangsters, often risking his own life. But there would be a heavy price to pay for a life in the shadows, where any mistake could have lethal consequences...Cracking the Case: Inside the mind of a top garda
By Christy Mangan. 2023
The No. 1 bestselling story of one of Ireland's top homicide investigators 'Thrilling and insightful' Ray D'Arcy, RTÉ 'Intriguing .…
. . a great read . . . it's the story of Ireland in a way' Nicola Tallant'Important and compassionate' Irish Times* * *'A fascinating, deeply personal journey inside of some of the most high-profile and grotesque crimes of the past four decades . . . a rare insight into the darkest recess of human nature' Paul Williams, Irish IndependentAfter a forty-year career in the gardaí Christy Mangan knows how hard it is to solve a murder. Now, in Cracking the Case, he takes a deep dive into how investigations are run.The book includes infamous and iconic cases such as that of Fr Niall Molloy whose violent death after a high society wedding became a source of feverish conspiracy theories; the notorious 'Scissor Sisters' case in which two sisters killed and dismembered their mother's abusive lover; and the tragic murder of teenager, Keane Mulready-Woods, as part of a gangland turf war in Drogheda.In these and other fascinating stories, Mangan details the care investigators take in trying to give victims' families answers and to see justice done. He also shows a deep understanding of the complex reasons people are drawn into crime or commit unthinkable acts.Cracking the Case is a remarkable insight into the mind of a gifted garda working at the highest level.Christy Mangan retired at the rank of chief superintendent in 2022.* * *'The people who most ought to read it are the country's lawmakers and the top rank of An Garda Síochána' Irish Times 'Lots of fascinating stories' Matt Cooper, Today FM 'Compelling' RTÉ GuideDeadly Divisions: The Spectre Chronicles
By Paul Ferris, Reg McKay. 2002
Glasgow, 1989. James Addison, aka Addie, has been a very busy man. Wanted for every type of crime for over…
a decade, there is only one hitch - he has never been seen, let alone caught. So, who or what is Addie? Does he even exist?When a small-time moneylender pimp is shot down on a Glasgow street, it seems to be just another gangland murder. But not for Andy Grimes, overseer of much of the city's prostitution, drug dealing and protection rackets - and the dead man's brother. When word leaks out that Addie is the killer, Grimes calls in his police allies and musters his troops. On the case is DCI Alex Birse, and old-time cop, as crooked as he is vicious. He has been after Addie for years and never got close. As the streets of Glasgow heave with police and gangsters, over in Berlin the Wall is coming down. At this time of great change, opportunity and uncertainty, the two cities are linked by loot – Bearer Bonds to be precise. Back in Glasgow, while pulling a scam on an old Jewish couple, one of Grimes' men, Angie the Gopher, finds a biscuit tin full of Bearer Bonds issued in Germany before the Second World War. Angie smells money – the bonds could be worth millions – and he scuttles back to tell his boss. Now the chase is on. Who gets the bonds? How much are they worth? Who perishes along the way? For the answers you'll have to rely on Addie. But can they catch him? The last line will reveal all . . . maybe.Fact is often stranger than fiction, and when Rod McLean, an escaped drug baron and alleged MI6 agent, was mysteriously…
found dead in a London flat after two months on the run, even Hollywood couldn't have scripted it better.McLean had only served seven years of his twenty-eight-year sentence he received following a 1996 sting operation off the Caithness coast in which a Customs officer lost his life. Despite being described as one of the most ruthless and important figures on the country's drug scene, McLean had found his security status downgraded from Category A to D and had been transferred to HMP Leyhill, an open prison which had seen 82 prisoners escape in 2002 alone. Shortly after the media had accused the security services of helping him to escape, McLean was found – dead. But not only did it take the Metropolitan Police 29 days to make the news public, it also took them that long to inform Avon and Somerset - the very police force who were still trying to recapture him. Why? Who was McLean and what made him so important? So important, in fact, that the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, had been compelled to order a report into his disappearance, much of which remains secret to this day. Cut-Throat is a truly unique account of Rod McLean's life and death, told in the first person using material from McLean's own hand. Whether as a mercenary in the Congo, an armed robber in Newcastle or as an international drug-smuggler and gun-runner who operated where few others have dared, McLean will take you through his life as he struggles against the darkest realms of humanity and himself until the very end, an end which overshadows the greatest secret of all – not of how he died, but of how he lived.Complete Jack The Ripper
By Donald Rumbelow. 2013
Fully updated and revised, Donald Rumbelow’s classic work is the ultimate examination of the facts, theories, fictions and fascinations surrounding…
the greatest whodunit in history.The Complete Jack the Ripper lays out all the evidence in the most comprehensive summary ever written about the Ripper. Rumbelow, a former London Metropolitan policeman, and an authority on crime, has subjected every theory – including those that have emerged in recent years – to the same deep scrutiny. He also examines the mythology surrounding the case and provides some fascinating insights into the portrayal of the Ripper on stage and screen and on the printed page. More seriously, he also examines the horrifying parallel crimes of the Düsseldorf Ripper and the Yorkshire Ripper in an attempt to throw further light on the atrocities of Victorian London.The Complete and Essential Jack the Ripper
By Paul Begg, John Bennett. 2013
Discover the truth behind the myth in The Complete Jack the Ripper by Paul Begg and John Bennett.Whitechapel, 1888: a…
spate of brutal murders becomes the most notorious criminal episode in London's history. The killer, chillingly nicknamed 'The Whitechapel Murderer', 'Leather Apron' and, most famously, 'Jack the Ripper', is never brought to justice for the slaughter and mutilation of at least five women in the slums of East London. But the mystery is deepened by a letter sent "From Hell" to Scotland Yard, accompanied by half of a preserved human kidney...In this comprehensive account of London's most infamous killer, the foremost authorities on the case explore the facts behind the most grisly episode of the Victorian era. Setting the scene in the impoverished East End, the authors' meticulous research offers detailed accounts of the lives of the victims and an examination of the police investigation. The Complete Jack the Ripper is the definitive book by Paul Begg and John Bennett, exploring both the myth and reality behind the allusive killer.Paul Begg and John Bennett are researchers and authors, widely recognized as authorities on Jack the Ripper. Paul Begg's books include Jack the Ripper: The Facts, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, and he is a co-author of The Jack the Ripper A to Z.John Bennett has written numerous articles and lectured frequently on Jack the Ripper and the East End of London. He has acted as adviser to and participated in documentaries made by television channels worldwide and was the co-writer for the successful Channel 5 programme Jack the Ripper: The Definitive Story. He is author of E1: A Journey Through Whitechapel and Spitalfields and co-author of Jack the Ripper: CSI Whitechapel.